Is this perimenopause?

[redbird]

I got my period last night. For the tenth time in 2016. That's ten in 8.5 months, and the last one in 2015 was in the last week in December. This period started two weeks after the last, which was two weeks after the one before it, and three weeks before that. And the periods are about as long as they had been when they started about four weeks apart, so I have been bleeding a significantly higher percentage of the time in the last year or so. ("or so" because I don't feel like getting up, grabbing my phone, and looking at the Evernote file I am tracking this in.)

I haven't been having bad cramps during these more-frequent cycles, but it's messy. Also, somewhere along the way my subconscious learned to wake up if a tampon needed changing; I would rather have to do more laundry than be waking at 5 a.m. and then trying to get back to sleep. And I probably wouldn't actually need to do more laundry, since I'm using a sanitary pad as well. (This doesn't make any apparent difference the part of my brain that is waking me to deal with this.)

ETA: What I'm mostly wondering is, what's likely to happen from here? (I am fairly sure the answer to "and can I do anything about it right now?" is no, but if there is something, I'm all ears.)

Comments

[snippy]

It could be, yes.

[alatefeline]

Sympathy. I don't have the experience to know if it's perimenopause, but if it's bothering you, you can absolutely feel justified in taking it to a doctor or another expert if you want. It could also be some other things, some of which are worrying; but that's true of every unexpected physical change ever.

I don't like having a period, but having an unpredictable increase sounds worse. Much sympathy here, and shared frustration with the aggravations of that stuff.

[athenais]

The only way to know for sure is to have your estrogen levels checked, but randomization of periods is absolutely a typical sign of perimenopause.

[commodorified]

It could be. Do you have a female sibling you can compare notes with? My sister and I have concluded that if we both have the exact same thing it's not apt to be a problem, which is very handy. We do both have that one.

BUT. It can ALSO be a sign of trouble, so if seeing the gyn isn't financially a big strain for you maybe go get an exam to rule out less benign possibilities.

[gothgeekgirl]

I'd say yes. That was one of my symptoms.

[oursin]

In my case it was 'wildly unpredictable' periods - both very short cycles and rather long ones.

As I recall, and OMG this was 20+ years ago, now I come to think of it, there was a simple blood-test that my GP did - though in my case it came out unhelpfully bang on the halfway mark between menopause yes/no.

Worth getting checked out.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[pameladean]

Very probably. Raphael remarked to me during this stage, or a bit further on, that I didn't have a period, I had an ellipsis.

Just about the time I wasn't having these problems any more, some doctors started prescribing low-dose oral contraceptives for people who were having either dangerous or just very very annoying heavy bleeding, but I don't know if that worked or if they still do so.

P.

[pameladean]

What happens from here varies from person to person. In my case, the more frequent periods and finally unpredictable bouts of bleeding became extremely heavy bleeding that ended up in a trip to see the gynecologist, a uterine biopsy, a diagnostic D&C (both to rule out cancer), and three months of high-dose progesterone (to "chase off any cancer cells we might have missed" because my doctor had an obsession with cancer) that stopped things for another three months, but then just as I was feeling it was over, the bleeding came back with a vengeance and lasted on and off for another five years. After that I had four or five periods a year for a couple of years, and then I had ONE period a year at the spring equinox for three years running, and then it all stopped.

I am quite sure there are now better ways to treat this kind of crazy bleeding if it happens, but it may well not happen to you. In the short run, many people find that alcohol and dairy products exacerbate the bleeding, but that is by no means universal. There might be some genetic component. My grandmother had a very similar experience to mine, while my mother did not.